FORMULA ONE - 2019

Keith Tanner said:

spacecadet said:

wae said:

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I was reading an article on motorsport.com where they interviewed..  uhm..  whatever the name of the guy who owns the track.  I want to say Epstein, but I'm sure that's not right.  Anyway, he said that it's a result of the flooding in 2015 where the water eroded the dirt that was around the drainage pipes that were sunk below the surface.  He was saying that caused the settling.  Apparently the German commentators were saying that the complex has sunk about 3 feet overall, but I don't know what his source would have been.

Texas clay settles after you build something on it. 

You have to water your foundation here, i don't remember the exact science of why. 

A new built house will need work once everything settles after a few years. 

Add in the fact as stated above that Texas has seen TORRENTIAL amounts of rain multiple years since the track opened in 2012. 

Track is due for some rework and they know it. 

I camped outside T6 and fell asleep at 10:30pm on friday night.

My buddy complained the next morning on saturday about hearing construction equipment that kept him up during the night.. I thought he was crazy, but now we know why based upon the mentioned article... because they ground down the bump going into T11 about 500yds from where we were sleeping in the middle of the night on Friday. 

You could see the grind marks all over the track. 

The place was constructed by Texan companies, they know the soil. It makes sense that the massive floods four years ago would have had an effect, but that usually manifests itself pretty quickly. There’s a big contract coming for someone to fix this. 

They'd been grinding prior to this weekend. I was surprised to find out they worked during the weekend. But it's not unheard of. 

Thanks everybody for the advice RE: parking and the track. Really helped out and we had a great time.

Now to figure out what track to visit next season.

During the start slow motion replay you can see Albon's flying redbull's left rear hit the top of Vettel's right rear. 

Thus Vettel suspension failure.

Brazil next. A little anticlimactic but I hope for a good race. 

So the new scuttlebutt about Ferrari is that the rules clarification that Red Bull asked for is one of the reasons the car was performing so poorly at COTA.  The clarification meant that no wires could pass by the fuel measuring hardware to interfere with it when it's in between measuring the fuel.

Max went so far to call them cheaters- more like """ this is what happens when you stop cheating""" kind of phrase.

How will Ferrari's pace look for the rest of the season?  And into next season? 

In reply to alfadriver :

IDK the pace loss in COTA seemed to be cornering. They just couldn't get out of the corners like they used to. So engine power didn't seem as much a factor as they couldn't even get close to anyone before the straights. 

In reply to Advan046 :

Max seemed pretty convinced....  But it will be interesting to see how teams finish this season, given next year is the last year of these cars.  All of this work finishing the season is huge for next season.  Unless everyone is bailing and letting Mercedes take it.  

And I think it should be noted that it was Honda who brought this clarification- since Red Bull is Honda's #1 customer.  Could this be the path Honda breaks Ferrari?   

All things considered, given that all of the championships are won, we are stretching for interesting things to discuss now....   Ferrari could have just had a bad weekend on an old engine.

The teams have detailed gps data from other teams and would know if there was something fishy in the Ferrari data.  The Ferrari had a sudden jump in performance without changing the spec of the power unit so something else has changed. They can't change physics so if they suddenly have a big straight advantage without a loss in cornering performance, then the power unit must be cranking out more ponies.

So Formula 1 is planning on being Carbon Neutral by 2030 https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.formula-1-announces-plan-to-be-net-zero-carbon-by-2030.5IaX2AZHyy7jqxl6wra6CZ.html

Other than cleaning up the consumer waste from the weekends, and keeping the hybrid powertrain, no other details were released, and it specifically mentions that details are to follow.

But I suspect they will move to E100 now.  E85 isn't carbon neutral, nor is any pump gas.  So if they want to really make that claim, it's going to be E100.  Grape growers in Europe are rejoicing, as they now have a real place to sell the extra fruit that goes to waste.  And I would bet that some of their race hosts will be encouraged to grow sugar for the sole purpose of making fuel.

I suspect it's going to be something less interesting like buying carbon credits from an EV manufacturer or planting trees. The same sort of thing that lets enviro celebs use "carbon neutral" private jets.

Cleaning up events can have a pretty dramatic effect, though. I've been to a bunch of half marathons, and the difference between the "no cup" races (carry your own refillable water pouch) and the ones handing out paper cups for water is dramatic. That's the sort of visible effect that can change people's behaviour, whereas pledges to use renewable energy in the fancy home offices don't do anything but make for warm fuzzy press releases. It's not like they're going to mount a bunch of windmills or solar panels on the roof - at least, not enough to do the job.

Now, if they develop a portable nuclear power system that lets them run the whole event without tapping into the local grid, THAT will make me pay attention :)

In reply to Keith Tanner :

You mean like "Mr. Fusion"?

I will accept that. Or an actual useable RTG.

Albon gets to keep his Red Bull seat for next year.

Of course, they also said Gasly was going to keep his seat for the entire season.

Albon has been a consistent point scorer, but he hasn't yet really challenged the other 5 drivers yet. I hope to see him on a podium soon.

I think Albon has made points with Dr Marko and Mr. Horner by starting dead last once, and passing everyone not in one of the top three cars to wind up 6th, and then did it again last week when he needed a new nose after turn one, and ran off a bunch of fastest laps to come back to 5th.

That would work pretty well for me, and i don't think Gasley or Kvyat (sp?) have done that.

I always take it as a given that the top three teams will occupy positions 1-6, regardless of starting position or calamity early in the race. They've done the "last to 6th" run so many times over the past few years it's not even noteworthy.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Except Gasley had a tough time doing that, which is why he got replaced by Albon.

Fair enough, Gasley did prove that he wasn't worthy of the seat.

What I thought was amusing was Kvyat digging into Albon's early Red Bull efforts...  And in the end, Albon was quite a bit faster....

Kvyat was fun to watch in the first half of the season. He pulled off some good passes and was aggressive while staying clean. He seemed to really be trying to get back to Red Bull. Now it seems as though he is crumbling a little bit with his incidents in the closing lap of the last two races. Maybe he just made mistakes and I'm reading too much into it. After the last two races, he cemented his fate I think of not getting another shot at Red Bull.

I hope that George Russell can move to a more competitive team soon or Williams turns things around to give him a better car.

T.J. said:

I hope that George Russell can move to a more competitive team soon or Williams turns things around to give him a better car.

Me, too- he seemed to be driving really strong, and helped the team quite a bit.  

OK KT & Afla D.....these two phenoms?? Albon and GR are they truly the real deal????....I'm  thinkin' they ARE.....is there hope for them to progress??

Between Albon, Russell, and Norris- the future looks bright, indeed.  

And that ignores LeClerc and Verstappen.  

Think about that- right now, there is some SERIOUS potential in the current crop of very young drivers.  Now we all have to decide our own pecking order to root for.  And I'm kind of leaning to Russel, due to him taking the bad seat, and doing better than his teammate all season.

I was just wondering with both championships done if any of the other teams would take grid penalties to try new engines or something? 2020 upgrades that they could use data on? 

The championships might be done, but there's still prize money for your finishing position in the other positions. Racing Point and Toro Rosso are basically tied so there are millions on the table. Renault is not safe from them. Hass and Alfa are pretty close. Williams can do whatever they want :(

Ferrari? Yeah, I can see them doing it - although they want the glory of a win. Red Bull potentially as well. The top three spots in the championship are pretty much locked so they can screw around without any penalty.

I don't think Albon is a future champion. I think he'll be a solid secondary driver, but I'm not sure he's got what it takes for the big prize. LeClerc, yes. Verstappen, potentially. I'm hoping Russell gets himself a good seat, he's been impressive. I like Norris, but he hasn't done anything his teammate hasn't done if memory serves.